Every time we shop at Walmart the Chinese warchest for a lunar base gets a boost; dont believe me? Try and buy a pair of shoes that’s not made in the Peoples Republic.
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We are the failed generation, history will look back and call this world wide lull in manned space activity as the equivalent of the dark ages in the design and production of manned space vehicles.
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We don't have an answer to the British French Concorde in aviation circles(expensive and too small to be practical)but it pointed to a future that no civil aerospace firm in America ever claimed. What a shame! Materials, computer modeling , rapid prototyping and finite element analysis and other advances since the 60's and yet none of the major players or their investors seem to have been able to translate that into a practical design. Mock-ups and test beds are everywhere.. funding is spent and projects shelved or moth balled for lack of a viable commercial design.
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NASA for all of the money the American taxpayer has given them has failed, they have failed to educate and build any sort of public interest in the future of manned spaceflight. Time after time they have proven themselves unresponsive to public requests for the re-imaging of certain features on Mars.
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The arrogance of the high cabal continues and as we watch the Chinese prepare to go to the moon, with a moon base planned.. My question for NASA is: What have you been doing for the last 3 decades? Have you designed a heavy lift rocket using all of the advances available?
Mars has been waiting and we are waiting.. we want a manned mission to Mars... but maybe a long duration Lunar mission needs to be undertaken as proof of concept first.(Mars Direct would be better but we'll take what we can get)
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The privately funded X-prize competition has placed the ball into the private sector's court. A ballistic sub orbital toss into space with a 14-day turn around before repeating the same sub orbital flight again. While it may capture the world’s attention briefly, it should also focus attention on NASA's lack of progress in the development of manned space flight abdicating leadership and ceding the vanguard to the private sector.
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We need to be manufacturing in orbit, the things we need to colonize space.. how can we do that without reliable , cost efficient launch systems? We have had 30 years..Its time to bring things to a halt and take a serious look at where we have been, where we want to go and what its going to take to get there.
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Salute the past and then grasp the reins and lead on to the future. First a launch system less complex more efficient, second an expanded space station committed to the building in orbit of technologies in support of manned Lunar and Mars missions. La Grange points, Space Elevators and more unmanned missions would have to wait.
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We need to get control of the monolith that is NASA and all of the funding that it uses and start directing the development in a War time footing effort to make a manned mars mission a reality within THIS decade or you can wait another 30 years for nothing to happen.
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I challenge NASA to prove me wrong... show me where, when and how we are going anywhere.. show me the plans , the launch vehicles and the ability to get things done
The moon missions took a decade, you have had 30 years lead-time from the word go. You have 5 years now.. show me something .. anything I can believe in... We have all been waiting for far too long

Yes I am disapointed, but some how I think I am not the only one. People within the agency as well I am sure feel the same way.
I have been waiting for a miracle , a giant leap forward to move us on to the stars.. The more I look at the space elevator concept , the more it looks like this concept could be the way to get material into orbit cheaply and safely.

I bring you HOPE. There is hope, its called the "private sector" and we will as in the past take the risks governments are unwilling to take (except Russia/China) to try and reignite public interest and support in frontier exploration.

I think the next decade will unravel like this for the private sector:

- More advanced commercial satellite launches

- LEO spaceflight for the rich/wealthy

- Commercial/Industrial exploitation of the moon (on a small scale)

Although Lewis & Clark didn't wait until they had jeeps, cellphones and GPS before exploring the west - in the current international climate, Mars is still a long, long way off, technology-wise and in terms of international financial support. We won't go until we feel we're ready - think films like 'Mission to Mars' or 'Red Planet'. But that doesn't mean we have to sit and wait. I believe the risk-taking private sector (and governments emerging as new space powers) have the financial/technological means RIGHT NOW to start manned exploitation of LEO, La Grange points and Earth-Moon space.

Hope is good! Progress is better!
If the space elevator concept works then perhaps we can start the construction of a real Commercial space station.
Hope and $50 billion dollars should get us started. An IPO for a discounted ticket price for a ride of the century. It would be nice to have some where to go.. not just a ride with a view.
Henry Ford made a production line... we need a rocket and capsule production line, while we are it a space suit production line.
Standardization of fabrication. In spite of my articles tone.. I do have hope.
To quote a Bruce Cockburn song Waiting for a Miracle" how come the future takes such a long long time"
www.americanantigravity.com has an interesting concept if it can be scaled up( like on a black project out at groom lake, a certain silent flying tiangle may have already proven this concept)
All the pieces of the puzzle are here, the elements required to make the transition all thats lacking is the will the money and a coherent strategy.
My own personal goal would be to have a habitable living space capable of supporting 6000 people in orbit by 2035. If we can sustain and operate a station of that size for 20 to 30 years .. we should also be able to build a ship for a long duration mission . Big dreams , Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos,Paul Allen take note.

IMO 6,000 people aboard a fully commerical spacestation is probably too much to ask for at this point. But if we're looking to the private sector now then something like LEO spaceflight and sharing an extended ISS, along with small scale commerical/industrial projects eg. public 'telepresence' on the Moon is more possible now.

I don't have much hope in the space elevator. Yeah I know, I know it is theoretically possible - but to me it just sounds too much like 'Jack and the Bean stalk'.

IMO 6,000 people aboard a fully commerical spacestation is probably too much to ask for at this point.

This in 20 to 30 years.. humm I don't think this is too much to ask.

It's maybe difficult to get that far that fast, but if the x-prize succeeds to create a large anough hype then a lot of investors may willing to invest a lot of monney, cause when there is a possible gigantic new industry, a lot are willing to be part of the people to gain monney out of it

So, I think it may come to a sudden speed up in space development in the comming years, especially private sector.

Ofcourse this are only speculations, reality may look more dark. but please stay optimistic

Why 6OOO? We need to build on a scale that permits room for research and developent,fabrication,recreation etc. A one design module, that interlocks easily with others of its kind. 2000 tourist, 2000 research and development people and a balance of support and technical staff.The sheer tonnage on orbit would require 3-4 years of dedicated space elevator lift capacity to complete and then on going support from that point.Can you imagine the saftey systems required? I Can .Imagine the worlds largest inflatable structure A kevlar dome attached to the station as a Micro gravity gymnasium. Imagine if all of the advances we use to produce all other consumer goods are brought to bear on the problems of life in space .. we could make so much headway in 10 years. It can be done. I want to fly.. lets go... oh theres that little bugaboo called funding.. Oh well...like I said big dreams